St Arnaud locked in race for top-two berth

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By NICK DUXSON

ST ARNAUD and Charlton are still locked in a two-way race for second position on the ladder after both recorded wins on Saturday.

QUICK HANDS: St Arnaud's Caleb Bloomer, pictured firing off a handball, played a starring role against Birchip-Watchem. Picture: JASON SMITH

ST ARNAUD and Charlton are still locked in a two-way race for second position on the ladder after both recorded wins on Saturday.

The Saints accounted for finals contender Birchip-Watchem by 26 points in Birchip, while the Navy Blues accounted for another Boort by 32 points on the Magpies' home turf.

The Navy Blues remain in second position on the ladder, with a big percentage buffer and a game in hand over the Saints.

The Bulls and Magpies are both four wins behind, with the Bulls holding fourth spot by percentage alone.

At George Cartwright Oval, neither side could gain an ascendancy in the first quarter.

But St Arnaud opened up a 20-point advantage at half-time with a run of four consecutive goals midway through the quarter.

Birchip-Watchem responded on both sides of half-time with five of the next six goals, reducing the margin to just seven points early in the third quarter, but the Saints found another gear to go into the final change leading by 27 points.

The visitors were wasteful in the final quarter kicking 4.7 but did enough to claim a 17.20 (122) to 15.6 (96) victory.

Nick Coghlan, Nathan Coghlan and Daniel Needs kicked four goals each for the Saints, while Ben Batters was named the side's best.

Caleb Bloomer and coach James McNamee both continued their strong form.

For the Bulls, Daniel Castellano kicked his second bag of eight in three weeks to earn best-on-ground honours.

Charlton led at every change in its win over Boort at Cobram Estate Oval.

Travis Baird, five goals, and Luke Kyriakides, four, did the damage on the scoreboard, while the consistent Rhys Thompson was named the Navy Blues' best.

Magpies coach Rick Easton and Andrew White kicked three goals each, with Jesse Smith leading the way for the host.

Ladder-leader Wedderburn tallied its 13th win for the season, fighting off Wycheproof-Narraport at Wycheproof Recreation Reserve.

The Redbacks surprisingly went into half-time trailing the host by 10 points.

But a four-goal-to-zero third quarter from the visitors saw them take a three-goal lead into the final change before running out 15.13 (103) to 9.13 (67) victors.

Brady Herdman, five goals, and Sam Barnes, four, were again potent up forward for the Redbacks.

Joel Turner was named the Demons' best player, while coach Ricky Allan booted three majors.